Matt Hardy on John Cena: "I Wouldn't Mind Him Winning His 17th World Title"

John Cena made a surprise return at the 2024 WWE Money In The Bank pay-per-view event to announce his forthcoming retirement from pro wrestling in 2025. Cena declared that he plans to participate in WWE events throughout next year, aiming to wrestle 30-40 matches before bidding farewell.

On a recent edition of his “Extreme Life” podcast, Matt Hardy discussed Cena’s impending farewell tour, noting that Cena deserves to surpass Ric Flair’s record of sixteen world championships.

You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:

On John Cena’s Retirement:

“I think John retiring is probably a good call for him. Because I think he wants to move forward and do more things on the Hollywood front and in the acting front and whatnot. And I think he — by kind of setting a timetable on it, like 2025 over the course of that year is when he’s going to do his retirement, and when he’s going to finish up, I think he’ll have a run of very interesting matches, very interesting feuds. And there’ll be people that he’ll elevate along that path. And they’ll become emotional, they’ll find a way to tie into the storytelling where it seems real emotional, and you’re going to miss him. And it’s going to be — you’re going to bereave him whenever he’s gone.

“But I think over the course of that time, he’ll do great. I think he’ll elevate people. He’ll get people emotionally connected to him and his journey, and what he’s doing. And then I think he’ll leave WWE, and you’ll still see him back as a figure on TV, interacting but not wrestling as much, and he will fully focus everything on Hollywood.”

On Whether Cena Will Break the World Title Record:

“I wouldn’t mind that. I wouldn’t mind that at all. I mean, I think he is such a WWE loyalist. Like, I wouldn’t mind that. I mean, he would be a great guy to get that honor. Because when you look back at him and it’s all said and done, he spent his entire career at WWE and for WWE. And he really is one of the more loyal employees that has ever worked at WWE. So yeah, I wouldn’t mind that at all. I didn’t hate that.”

On His Last Match Being for the Title:

“I think there is something that could be valuable from a run with John Cena. I just think if people get so emotionally to him and his journey like, ‘Oh my God, we don’t want it to be over, we don’t want it to be over,’ and he gets into like a title match, I feel like he could win. And then you have a month, he doesn’t need a long reign obviously. You give them a month where he has this — you know, it’s like, ‘Oh my God, John Cena. We’re getting the best John Cena.’ And then you have him put over someone clean and make them, and they’re beating this legend, the GOAT who has had more reigns than anybody else. I think there could be something to that of value.”